Irish MEP Dana Scallon last week voiced dismay over a report that Development Commissioner Poul Nielson has established a unit in his department to monitor anti-abortion campaigners.

Scallon, the 1970 Eurovision Song Contest winner, has been outspoken against the Commission’s funding of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) and the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF). Both provide reproductive health services in poor countries and have come under attack from the ‘pro-life’ lobby for allegedly promoting abortion.

According to Scallon, the unit’s work would amount to “insidious ‘Big Brother’ intimidation”.

This week, however, Nielson’s spokesman Michael Curtis said it was “stretching it” to claim that a special unit is being created.

In fact, an official already working in DG Development has been tasked with tracking statements made about the Commission by the anti-abortion lobby.

“This is someone already dealing with reproductive health as part of their job. They’ve been asked to keep an eye on people who are campaigning to undermine the work the Commission is doing and to organise rebuttals where necessary,” Curtis explained.

The Commission insists that it does not promote abortion as a means of family planning, but that it is committed to making contraceptives available in poor countries, so that unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases can be prevented.

Its work is in line with the declaration agreed by the 1994 UN conference on population and development in Cairo.

“These people [the anti-abortion lobby] speak all kinds of rubbish,” added Curtis. “They want to turn over the Cairo consensus and chip away at the improvements made in recent years.

“There is no embarrassment or shame on our side over the work we have been doing.”

Scallon has spearheaded a campaign within the European Parliament to block funding for family-planning agencies from the EU budget. The deputy was one of 57 MEPs who recently signed a letter opposing the granting of EU funds to the IPPF, which states that it wishes to see abortions only carried out under safe conditions.

Other signatories include José María Gil-Robles, the Parliament’s former president, and Ingo Friedrich, one of its current vice-presidents.